— SAN FRANCISCOhe “knowledge transfersessions” started a fewmonths after Jeff Tanreceived notice lastsummer that he andabout 80 co-workerswould be laid off by theUniversity of California, SanFrancisco, at the end ofFebruary.

At daily two-hour meetings
with employees from HCL
Technologies, an Indian tech
services company that had landed the outsourcing contract from
UCSF, Tan trained HCL staff
members in India by videocon-ference and employees brought
to the United States on H-1B
visas how to do his job.

More than any other industry,
tech companies depend on the
85,000 foreign workers allowed
into the United States annually
under the H-1B visa program.

The H-1B is a temporary visa
intended to bring in foreign professionals with college degrees
and specialized skills to fill jobs
when qualified Americans cannot be found. Technology giants
like Microsoft and Google have
pressed for increases in the
annual quotas, saying there are
not enough Americans with the
skills they need.

But for tech workers like Tan,
the program has had very negative consequences.

“I thought the purpose of H-1Bvisas was to give America a com-petitive edge, not help compa-nies ship American jobs abroad,”said Tan, who had worked for theuniversity as an informationtechnology systems administra-tor for 20 years. “This is nowstandard practice in the technol-ogy industry.”The debate over H-1B visas hasgained new urgency as employ-ers prepare for President DonaldTrump to sign an executive orderto overhaul the program. It is notclear what action Trump plans totake, but a draft of a proposedexecutive order on the matterwas leaked lastweek. It included apassage sayingoptions for modify-ing the H-1B pro-gram would beconsidered to“ensure that bene-ficiaries of the pro-gram are the bestand the brightest.”The H-1B pro-gram’s critics saythe system pro-vides a way for U.S.companies to turnover technologydepartments tooutsourcing com-panies. These are gaming the sys-tem to snap up the visas so theycan replace American workerswith less expensive, temporarystaff members.

A research report by GoldmanSachs estimates that 900,000 toa million H-1B visa holders nowreside in the United States, andthat they account for up to 13percent of U.S.technology jobs.In 2014, 13 out-sourcing firmsaccounted for one-third of all H-1Bvisas. They use aloophole in thecurrent first-come,first-served lotterysystem to flood theapplicant pool withtheir candidates. Inmany cases, thosecandidates are paidslightly more thanthe $60,000-a-yearminimum salaryrequired by theprogram — but less than whatAmerican technology workersmake.

Proponents of the H-1B systemargue that it is an importantvehicle to attract top talent toAmerica. After coming to theUnited States, these visa holdersmay apply their skills to startnew companies or create new,innovative products — leading tomore jobs in America.

The debate over who wins and
who loses as a result of the H-1B
visa program echoes similar discussions of how free trade helps
or hurts the economy. While the
benefits are spread broadly
throughout the economy, the
costs are much more concentrated and easy to identify.

In other words, it’s true that
cheaper labor helps employers
increase profits and grow, and
having more skilled workers in
the United States contributes to
economic innovation. But at the
same time, individual American
employees do face more salary
pressure from newcomers who
will work for less. And in some
cases, they risk losing their jobs
entirely, especially older employees who earn higher salaries.

After 11 years working in the
IT department of Northeast
Utilities, a Connecticut-based
company now named Eversource
Energy, Craig Diangelo was
among 220 employees laid off in
2014. Before leaving the company, he was told he needed to
train his replacement if he wanted to receive his severance.

Diangelo, who is now 64 and
was receiving $130,000 a year in
salary and bonus, said he trained
an employee from the Indian
outsourcing firm Infosys who
was an H-1B visa holder making
$60,000 a year. There was also a
team of workers in India making
$6,000 a year that shadowed him
on the computer.

“The problem,” he said, “isthat my job is still there. I wentaway. The American workerwent away.”A representative of Infosysdeclined to comment. Al Lara, aspokesman for EversourceEnergy, said in a statement: “Wemade changes to our IT depart-ment three years ago during aperiod of transition and changeto support the merger of our twocompanies while under muchregulatory scrutiny. We areproud of the new IT organiza-tion.” Lara was referring to amerger with NStar in 2012.

In other instances, the jobs are
filled only temporarily by H-1B
workers — before the outsourcing
firm moves the job permanently
to a lower-cost country.

“That’s the endgame,” said
Sara Blackwell, a lawyer repre-

T

Hank Nguyen, Audrey Hatten-Milholin and Margaret Horn lost their jobs at the University of California, San Francisco.